Target: Vicky Peterwald, Book 1

Her Imperial Highness the Grand Duchess Victoria Maria Teresa Inez Smythe-Peterwald, daughter of wealth and power, was raised to do little except be attractive and marry well. Then everything changed - her brother, her father’s favorite and the heir apparent, was killed in battle by Lieutenant Kris Longknife, daughter of the Peterwald’s longtime enemies. Vicky vowed revenge, but her skill set was more suitable for seduction than assassination, and she failed. Angry and disappointed, her father decided she needed military training and forced her to join the Navy.

Bold: Kris Longknife, Book 14

Despite her role as a fleet admiral and protector of a planetary system, Kris is still beholden to her great-grandfather King Raymond's commands. She has been personally selected for a mission that will, should she succeed, save millions of lives. The Peterwald Empire is in the midst of civil war. On one side is the tyrannical empress; on the other is the last person Kris ever wants to see again: Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald. Due to their shared history, the emperor believes Kris can mediate between the factions and bring about peace.

Mutineer: Kris Longknife, Book 1

Kris Longknife is a daughter of privilege, born to money and power. Her father is the prime minister of her home planet, her mother the consummate politician's wife. She's been raised only to be beautiful and marry well. But the heritage of the military Longknifes courses through Kris' blood - and, against her parents' objections, she enlists in the Marines.

At the Sign of Triumph: Safehold, Book 9

The Church of God Awaiting's triumph over Charis was inevitable. Despite its prosperity, the Charis was a single, small island realm. It boasted less than two percent of the total population of Safehold. How could it possibly resist total destruction? The Church had every reason to be confident of a swift, crushing victory, an object lesson to other rebels.

Shadow of Victory

Sometimes things don't work out exactly as planned. The Mesan Alignment has a plan - one it's been working on for centuries. A plan to remake the galaxy and genetically improve the human race - its way. Until recently things have gone pretty much as scheduled, but then the Alignment hit a minor bump in the road called the Star Empire of Manticore. So the Alignment engineered a war between the Solarian League, the biggest and most formidable interstellar power in human history.

The First Casualty: Jump Universe, Book 1

Asteroid miner Mary Rodrigo and freighter owner Mattim Abeeb are green draftees of the Society of Humanity, forced to fight for Earth - a planet they’ve never even seen. Major Ray Longknife and his lover, Senior Pilot Rita Nuu, are career soldiers, invested with the cause of the Unity Party - and its ambitious new president. These four soldiers on opposing sides of the battle are about to discover the true nature of this terrible war: a quest for profit - from the high command of both sides. What they will risk is nothing less than their lives. For although truth may be the first casualty of war, it’s not going to be the last….

The Oncoming Storm: Angel in the Whirlwind, Book 1

In the year 2420, war looms between the galaxy's two most powerful empires: the tyrannical Theocracy and the protectionist Commonwealth. Caught in the middle sits the occupied outpost system Cadiz, where young officer and aristocrat Katherine "Kat" Falcone finds herself prematurely promoted at the behest of her powerful father. Against her own wishes, Kat is sent to command the Commonwealth navy's newest warship, Lightning.

Koban: Conflict and Empire

The Galactic Federation is confronted by the vast and implacable Thandol Empire, which has coveted the former Krall region of space for eons, a region of space now occupied and claimed by the upstart Kobani. Outnumbered, they face an opponent who possesses new and deadly weapons. An enemy that had thousands of years to develop the means to take on the Krall Empire, and now present the supermen with a weapon that turns their greatest genetic asset into their greatest weakness.

The Terran Privateer: The Duchy of Terra, Book 1

Earth is conquered. Sol is lost. One ship is tasked to free them. One Captain to save them all. When an alien armada destroys the United Earth Space Force and takes control of the human homeworld, newly reinstated Captain Annette Bond must take her experimental hyperspace cruiser Tornado into exile as Terra's only interstellar privateer. She has inferior technology, crude maps, and no concept of her enemy, but the seedy underbelly of galactic society welcomes her so long as she has prizes to sell and money to spend.

Tarnished Knight: The Lost Stars, Book 1

The authority of the Syndicate Worlds’ government is crumbling. Civil war and rebellion are breaking out in many star systems, despite the Syndic government’s brutal attempts to suppress disorder. Midway is one of those star systems, and leaders there must decide whether to remain loyal to the old order or fight for something new.

Metal Boxes - At the Edge

Ensign Stone's goals were to make his way in the Empire's navy, make his family proud of him, and make love to his fiancée. No matter which way he turned, someone was conspiring against him. Disgraced and humiliated, he is court-martialed, discharged, and abandoned. Accepting what he thinks is a lowly busy-work position on a beat up old family business space freighter travelling at the edge of human space, he hopes to earn back the trust and respect he lost.

A Call to Duty: Book I of Manticore Ascendant

Growing up, Travis Uriah Long yearned for order and discipline in his life...he two things his neglectful mother couldn’t or wouldn’t provide. So when Travis enlisted in the Royal Manticoran Navy, he thought he’d finally found the structure he’d always wanted so desperately. But life in the RMN isn’t exactly what he expected. Boot camp is rough and frustrating; his first ship assignment lax and disorderly; and with the Star Kingdom of Manticore still recovering from a devastating plague, the Navy is possibly on the edge of budgetary extinction.

Into the Dark: Alexis Carew, Book 1

At 15, Alexis Carew has to face an age old problem - she's a girl, and only a boy can inherit the family's vast holdings. Her options are few. She must marry and watch a stranger run the lands, or become a penniless tenant and see the lands she so dearly loves sold off. Yet there may be another option, one that involves becoming a midshipman on a shorthanded spaceship with no other females.

Codename: Night Witch: The Girls from Alcyone, Book 3

The unthinkable has happened. Sigrid Novak, the most dangerous and wanted person in the history of the Federation of Corporate Enterprises, has been captured. For the women of New Alcyone - women just like her, genetically reengineered and trained since childhood to be the most effective killers in the galaxy - this is a staggering loss. For the Independents, the rebels who captured her, this is a boon beyond measure.

Hard Lessons: A Learning Experience, Book 2

Fifty years after Steve Stuart and his friends captured an alien starship, the Solar Union is a thriving interstellar power while Earth is increasingly backward and falling into barbarism. For two youngsters from Earth, the Solar Union offers the only chance they will ever have to make something of their lives.

ALICE Resurrection: Alice, Book 3

Colonel Jake Thomas has a mess on his hands. The losses on Klinan have gutted an already short-staffed defense force, and his people are scrambling to prepare for a possible attack, directly on Earth. Combined with the seemingly erratic behavior of Sara, his number-one go-to girl, he is struggling to keep up. Now, with unexplained transmissions originating in Europe, and an Alien visitor with questionable motives, he is awash in new challenges on Earth and in space.

They Shall Not Pass: The Empire's Corps, Book 12

Despite the escape from Meridian - and a strike at the heart of Wolfbane - enemy forces are still advancing on all fronts. The Commonwealth, worn down by a year of hard fighting, is reaching the end of its tether while Admiral Singh, having secured control of Wolfbane, is searching for the breaking point that will shatter the Commonwealth once and for all. Time is needed, time to bring new weapons and tactics into service, but time is the one thing the Commonwealth doesn't have.

W. DYER says:"It was good to see Nuttall get back to his great story telling"

Study in Slaughter: Schooled in Magic, Book 3

Brimming with new ideas for magical research, Emily returns to Whitehall School for her second year of magical education, looking forward to returning to her studies. And yet things are different; her new roommates harbor their secrets, her old friends are becoming distracted by sports and games, and one of the teachers seems to dislike her. As she starts new classes, she discovers she has to work far harder to keep her place in the school. But her second year will be far more adventurous than her first.

A Learning Experience, Book 1

When a bunch of interstellar scavengers approach Earth intending to abduct a few dozen humans and sell them into slavery in the darkest, they make the mistake of picking on Steve Stuart and his friends, ex-military veterans all. Unprepared for humans who can actually fight, unaware of the true capabilities of their stolen starships, the scavengers rapidly lose control of the ship - and their lives.

In Ashes Born: A Seeker's Tale from the Golden Age of the Solar Clipper, Book 1

An old friend. A new course. A deadly ship with a secret cargo. Ishmael Wang returns to Port Newmar, but ghosts from his past have followed him. His old shipmate, Phillip Carstairs, offers him the opportunity to track down the man who killed his lover. The catch? He must take command of the Chernyakova, a ship that still stinks of death and haunts Ishmael's nightmares. Together Phillip and Ismael begin a journey into unknown reaches of the Deep Dark to bring back the man who killed Greta.

The Black Sheep: A Learning Experience, Book 3

In the wake of Earth's collapse into chaos, Captain Hoshiko Stuart made the mistake of speaking her mind - and was exiled six months from Sol to a naval base in an unexplored and uncontacted sector. Placed in command of a single squadron of starships, she expected nothing but boredom. But when she discovers an alien race threatening to exterminate all other races within the sector, Hoshiko and her squadron are drawn into a war to stop them.

Crusade: Starfire, Book 1

Spacers call the warp point Charon's Ferry. No star ship has ever entered it and returned since a vengeful Orion task force pursued a doomed Terran colonization fleet into it in 2206. Almost a century has passed. The fiery hatreds of a quarter-century of warfare between the Terran Federation and the Zheeerlikou'valkhannaieeee, the cat-like species humans called the "Orions", have eased at least a little.

The Girls from Alcyone

Sigrid and Suko are two girls from the impoverished and crime-infested streets of 24th century Earth. Sold into slavery to save their families from financial ruin, the girls are forced to live out their lives in service to the Kimura Corporation, a prestigious mercenary clan with a lineage stretching back long before the formation of the Federated Corporations.

Lessons in Etiquette: Schooled in Magic, Book 2

After completing her first year of learning magic at Whitehall School, Emily accepts an invitation from Princess Alassa to accompany her on her progress back to her home country of Zangaria, where the princess may meet her future husband. Alassa, who was a spoiled brat before she met Emily, wants to show off her friend - and impress potential suitors. For Emily, it is a chance to relax and explore a world very different to Earth, meet new people and come to terms with her reputation in the Nameless World.

Publisher's Summary

Seeking revenge for her brother's death, Grand Duchess Vicky Peterwald underwent an unlikely transformation - from pampered heir to naval lieutenant. Now a new challenge looms: Vicky will need to use both her military and political ranks to rebuild war-torn planets, planets ruined both by the Peterwald Empire and by Kris Longknife's revolutionary quests.

But not everyone shares Vicky's goals. When the death-before-dishonor code of the navy meets the anything-goes-to-win motto of the imperial family, Vicky must confront, outwit, and conquer both revolutionaries and her own family to stifle galactic disorder.

It is important to read this series in order as one book feeds into the next book. At the end of the last book (Target) in the series Vicky had arrived at St. Petersburg and was refused access to the planet. This book opens with Vicky and her pilot/bodyguard on descent to the plant in an old landing craft with the Planet government threatening to shoot her down. From this exciting opening the action never stops. From assassination attempts to political intrigue Vicky weaves her way to put together a fleet of merchant ships from St. Petersburg to go to the two nearby starving plants to start a barter trade to save all three plants and feed the starving people. Vicky’s step mother has put a price on Vicky’s head for her death while she is attempting to take over control of the Greenfeld Empire.

Vicky has grown a great deal in this book from the original spoiled brat that she was portrayed as in the Kris Longknife series. She is now a responsible and caring beautiful young woman. Thank goodness Shepherd has significantly reduced the sex scenes from the last book. Shepherd has such interesting characters in his stories with great bantering dialog. Vicky’s personal computer cannot match Kris’s “Nellie”. Looking forward to finding out what happens to Vicky. Dina Pearlman narrates the story.

This is the second of the the Vicky Peterwald series. a spinoff the the Kris Longknife books. In this book we find Lt. Commander Peterwald growing up. Finding the real world limits ans she starts to build her base of operations for the rebellion to save the soul of the greenfeld empire.

Ms. Pearlman's narration is spot on and excellent as alway. I can't wait for the next book in this series.